Pinelands
Track #11 on handmade, “Pinelands,” was recorded on December 23, 2006.
This song has an interesting secret, and I’ll get to that eventually.
In 2001, my wife and I visited the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. It was a wonderful trip, and we were quite surprised at the beauty we found there. I decided to name this song after our Pinelands trip because the day I composed it, I was looking through our old photo albums and found those vacation pictures.
This song has an unusual structure. The parts go AAB, AAB, C, and then AAB. Here is the “A” part, a six bar unit with an unusual resolution (C9#11 to G∆). [Remember to check out this page for my standard chord abbreviations.]
| Am7, D7 | % | % | % |
| C9#11 | G∆ |
The “B” section is similar, but is 8 bars long, and has a different resolution, leading into an E7alt turnaround:
| Am7, D7 | % | % | % |
| C9#11 | Bø | E7alt | % |
In the middle of the tune (about 2:00 to 2:20), the “C” section is a 14-bar unit with an unusual series of chords:
| A∆ | % | A∆+ | % |
| B7 | % | Gø | % |
| C7 | % | Ab∆ | % |
| C#ø, F#7 | Bø, E7alt |
Now, here’s an interesting side note, the secret I referred to earlier. On DMusic, many of the musicians do collaborations. When I compose a drum track for a song, I always hear that song in my head when I hear the drum track. I wondered: what would happen if someone who didn’t know the song played along with the drum track? Would they hit on the same sort of rhythm and phrasing, or come up with something entirely different?
I released the conga drum track by itself on DMusic as “Nvfketvn Hayecis.” (Follow the link and you can play it by hitting the links listed after “Actions.”) The name means, basically, “I am playing drums” in Creek.
The result? Less than 24 hours later, Pangtera had posted a collaboration. I discussed it in this earlier article. Amazingly to me, it sounded nothing like I expected, but was a gentle ballad.
This brings up a point you’ve probably been wondering if you have read other entries in this series. The things I write about each song are just my interpretation; they are the things I think of, see, and hear when the song plays. You might hear something entirely different, and that’s fine. In this case, I had definite proof that the meaning of the track depended on the listener.
